A Walmart shopper was labeled a thief when he was captured putting dozens of items in his bag without scanning in a self-checkout line — but he said he was doing his job as he fired back at the allegations.
Bill Astle faced intense online scrutiny when a shopper at the Green Mount Commons Walmart in Belleville, Illinois recorded him loading up his packed shopping cart, seemingly not paying for the items on May 12.
“This man is literally just stealing everything,” a woman behind the camera says in a 14-second video. “He ain’t scanning s–t. So open about it, look at the screen, nothing ringing up.”
The video has been posted on nearly all social media sites, and even racked up over 15.6 million views on one post alone.
Many outraged users took to the comments about the man’s “brazen theft,’ using the video to criticize the supermarket chain.
“This is why Walmart is getting rid of the self-checkout. This idea backfired hard on them. Theft is through the roof,” one said.
“This is why the rest of us have to pay an arm and leg for the small things,” another comment read.
Astle says the internet rushed to conclusions and has the story wrong.
“I’m not a thief. I’m being pictured and painted as a thief on the internet,” Astle told First Alert 4.
Astle had been at the Walmart location as part of his job working for Walmart’s delivery service, Spark.
Spark delivery drivers are given the items the customers want via a phone app and scan the items in the app with their cameras as they shop.
“Everything is done off the phone, so when we get to the register, we’re not actually scanning a single item,” Astle told the outlet.
Instead of scanning each item at the kiosk, Spark workers scan a code off their phone and then they can proceed to bag the items — such as the viral moment when Astle was filmed.
Astle was amazed at how quickly the video spread online as viewers even reached out to the St. Louis Battlehawks to condemn the fan because he was seen wearing the football team’s shirt.
“Please control your fans,” one person wrote.
“Kaw isn’t the law for him?” another added, a play on words to the Battlehawks slogan “Kaw is Law.”
Astle’s biggest hope is he would like to have all the clips removed from the internet.
“Ideally trying to find a way to get them pulled down,” he added.
Astle is trying to clear his name as more people walk up to him as he shops asking if he was a thief.
“I’ve had customers say, ‘Hey, didn’t I see you on the internet? Didn’t you steal items?’ And then I have to explain to people what I’m doing,” said Astle.
The Spark worker shared two receipts of the work he did inside the store for further proof he wasn’t stealing.
There was one item, however, that Astle did scan and pay for during his stop at the store, a bouquet of roses for his wife, but that moment happened just after the video ended.
“Had they continued the video for another 30 seconds, they would’ve seen when I got done with the Spark delivery order, I scanned two dozen roses.”